USAF Penetrating Fighter -PCAP
 

B-21 Bomber Estimate By CAPE: $511M A Copy

NATIONAL HARBOR: The Air Force’s new bomber, the B-21 Raider, should come in almost $40 million below the official $550 million a copy official estimate, says Randall Walden, director of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office. So, $511 million is the new $550 million.

After his panel here at the Air Force Associations 2016 annual conference, Walden said the Pentagon’s office of Cost Estimate and Program Analysis (CAPE) has produced a new estimate of $511 million a plane, which matches earlier estimates by the plane’s builder Northrop Grumman.

CAPE has been regularly performing cost estimates of the plane since 2012.

Walden also made clear the Air Force will probably pursue a deep penetrating fighter to accompany the bomber to heavily defended targets deep inside a country. He didn’t say it but my understanding is war games have shown the B-21 is incapable of making it to western China to destroy the missile and artillery units there.

The aircraft concept is called Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA). The program, I understand is called PCAP.

Here’s what Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan says about PCA:

“PCA will focus on maximizing tradeoffs between range, payload, survivability, lethality, affordability, and supportability. While PCA capability will certainly have a role in targeting and engaging, it also has a significant role as a node in the network, providing data from its penetrating sensors to enable employment using either stand-off or stand-in weapons.”

This seems consistent with rumors that the Air Force is pursuing a new program to build an aircraft to accompany the bomber deep into western China, where the Second Artillery has its facilities and many of China’s most important capabilities.

I’ve spoken with a number of industry experts who assume PCAP will be a program. They also decline to discuss it any detail, saying the threats and capabilities are classified........

if you are bombing W China you don't need fighter cover but some anti-ICBM interceptors.................

IIRC, the role of the purported TR-3 was to scout ahead of the B-2 to locate mobile road/rail ICBM launcher train/convoys in The USSR in the event of war.

One presumes the same scenario and role is envisaged for the PCA.

What happened to the B-3 to[1] B-20?






















[1] Or "thru", as the DoD might put it...

More like for the F-117 than B-2 IIRC rumor had it that TR-3B may have seen service during Desert Storm pairing up with the F-117A but no proof it exists.

Cheers

I thought the concept of a Conventional War with China was unthinkable....and un-winnable!

Who said anything about a conventional payload?

If they ever send the B-2/B-21s hunting in China with the PAC looking for nuclear assets, they won't be carrying PGMs....

Why use aircraft when you have lots of missiles setting in Silo's looking for a reason to be used?

Because you might not want to upset absolutely everyone by launching missiles.

Instead, you might prefer to be very specific about how and where similar types of weapons are employed, with a relatively short time of flight and low chance of detection by the country you are launching them on, let alone those outside of the country.

China's hypersonic strike threat seems quite credible, you might want to stop that before it leaves their border.

Rumor has it that the B-17 was of some marginal use. The rest? Not so much.

You have to love some of the less serious naming proposals for the B-21.
Sneaky McBombface.
And my personal favourite, SBD for Silent but Deadly.

Lost in the rush for a trendy PR designation for a bomber for the 21st century, and located in the same round file as F-24 to F-34

Worth noting that the last manned 'black' project to come into the light was the Boeing Bird of Prey in 2002. Who knows what has been flying in the desert in recent years?

I wish the B-21 better fortune that it's predecessor ... "only the prototype was ever built."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-21

There was an F-24...a YF-24 anyway. The type used to appear on this bio before being removed c.2011. BRIGADIER GENERAL JOSEPH A. LANNI > U.S. Air Force > Biography Display

Think of B-21 more as B2.1 ...

In service in 14 years? And with an AIM-120 replacement? They're having a laugh...... Obviously aimed at he Pacific theatre - longing for the long legs the F-35 is so obviously lacking.

U.S. Air Force Begins Search For Next-Gen Leap-Ahead Fighter | Defense content from Aviation Week

The U.S. Air Combat Command (ACC) will embark on an 18-month analysis of leap-ahead air superiority fighter options next January, as eight nations move forward with development of a dozen different fifth-generation combat jets aimed at narrowing the U.S.’s lead with the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35.

After publishing its Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan in May, the air service is now reaching for what is known as Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA), a family of weapons designed to clear the skies of enemy threats 14 years from now. PCA will not be a “sixth-gen” fighter in the traditional sense, but it will be a successor or supplement to the Boeing F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor. PCA does include a new low-observable aircraft powered by an adaptive-cycle engine, armed with an internally carried successor to the Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile and AGM-88-series High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile.........

Meanwhile, the Navy has begun its own 18-month analysis of alternatives titled Next-Generation Air Dominance for an F/A-XX, a carrier-based combat jet to succeed the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. PCA and the F/A-XX will remain separate, but are “jointly informed” on the latest aircraft and weapons technology and will likely share many common subsystems and components. However, the airframes themselves will be optimized to meet different threats from different locations in different optional environments..........

Speaking at the Pentagon on Oct. 21, Defense Department acquisition chief Frank Kendall said he does “not envision a common aircraft,” but instead many common subsystems. Among the threats driving these programs are the introduction of long-range anti-ship and ballistic missiles that put U.S. aircraft carriers and forward fighter bases at risk. This is driving “an appetite” for greater range and heavier payload to reduce dependence on these forward operating locations........

Deep Penetrating Fighter
 

" Walden also made clear the Air Force will probably pursue a deep penetrating fighter to accompany the bomber to heavily defended targets deep inside a country"

A P-51 surely? :)

I don't think any American fighter developed after F-35 will be manned. I may be wrong ... but that's how I am betting.

pcap?

so just what is the eye wateringly expensive pos F35 program for then?

F-35 is the low end F-16 bomb truck replacement (snigger). PCAP is the high end F15/F-22 replacement.

For the USN, without saying so they are running away bravely from the F-35 which doesn't have the legs for them to stay out of threat range when attacking or payload/endurance when defending. They want a UCAV for attack and a next gen F-14/Phoenix equivalent against J-20/hypersonic SSM for defence.